Emmanouil Bitsakis was born in Athens in 1974. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1996-2001). In 2001, he received a scholarship from the Danish Institute in Athens to spend two months in Copenhagen creating artwork. He has held six solo shows and has taken part in art fairs and group exhibitions in Greece and internationally. He lives and works in Athens.

... Bitsakis' portraits are also stunning paintings in their own right, deserving winners of the 2008 BP travel award.

Not much more than a dozen centimeters square, the images have a powerful mood of loss and fortitude with their flattened perspective, sharply drawn brooding faces, which recall Dürer and Memling, and compressed backgrounds featuring local ornament and Communist architecture. A solo show beckons.

Ben Lewis
Art critic

* Εxtract from an article on the exhibition at National Portrait Gallery, London (Evening Standard, 8 July 2009).